Utilizing micro-moments in your brand marketing strategy is necessary if you want to produce a powerful brand message. Nevertheless, recognizing the right micro-moments and knowing how to capture them takes a lot of strategic planning and creative ideation – as demonstrated in the best branding agency portfolio.
Yet, businesses that are unable to understand their target market’s micro-moments are doing themselves a significant disservice and are going to have a tough time growing their market share and maximizing their business and brand value. To ensure this doesn’t happen to your company, read on to learn how to utilize micro-moments in your branding strategy.
1. Understand the concept of micro-moments
Before you can start utilizing micro-moments, you first need to understand what they are and why they are so crucial for your branding strategy. Micro-moments happen when individuals automatically reach for their device to act on a desire to learn, do, discover, watch, or buy something. These moments (which transpire hundreds of times throughout the day) are critical because they are intent-rich times when choices are made and preferences developed.
Generally, all micro-moments can be divided into four categories:
- Want to know: When an individual gathers information to use when purchasing something.
- Want to go: When an individual is looking for a location.
- Want to buy: When an individual wants to buy but needs suggestions for what or how to purchase.
- Want to do: When an individual requires assistance in completing a task or attempting something new.
As consumers have powerful devices (mainly smartphones) in their pockets at all times, their expectations are becoming higher, and they expect to receive whatever they are looking for as quickly as possible.
These real-time, intent-driven micro-moments are a significant opportunity for your company to reach consumers when they are making decisions and forming their preferences. If you are able to address a potential customer’s needs in these micro-moments, you will stand out from the competition.
2. Rethink the linear customer journey concept
The prevalence of these micro-moments is leading the traditional customer journey model to be antiquated, so it is time to move on from solely focusing on the linear customer journey.
Instead, you need to understand that the once-linear sequence of milestones has transformed and is now in the hands of mobile-powered customers. That isn’t to say those significant milestones aren’t hit, but they are more frequently occurring in an order that the customer chooses. Therefore, it is crucial that you update your strategy and rethink the linear customer journey concept to ensure that your company has the upper hand.
One of the main approaches to take into account is to optimize your internet presence for mobile. To position yourself appropriately for micro-moments, you need to have your brand experience be consistent and reliable across all your channels. They also must cover numerous points in the conversion funnel.
To ensure you are optimized for mobile, it is highly recommended that you work with a technology partner who can help you bring to life your audience engagement strategy while ensuring the best attainable user experience. Unfortunately, if your website is not mobile-optimized, you are going to miss out on capturing those micro-moments.
3. Prepare for the pace
One of the main characteristics of micro-moments is the pace with which customers are making decisions. Today’s online consumers make purchasing decisions faster due to the availability of online research. Therefore, you need to ensure that you are able to keep up with their speed. In fact, you have no more than ten seconds to interact with potential customers and leave a positive impression.
To accomplish this, planning ahead is essential. This may include managing reviews, optimizing for mobile, and publishing content for each step of the customer journey. Moreover, your website must be fast and straightforward to navigate, and the most essential information should be highlighted.
Don’t fall into the trap of overburdening pages with text. Instead, keep things simple and utilize infographics, videos, and other engaging content forms that direct consumers to discover more and purchase with ease. Look to engage consumers by generating trigger experiences that provoke people browsing your website to do a particular action.
4. Prioritize content
When it comes to content, you can put yourself ahead of your competitors by creating SEO-optimized content that matches particular searches. By gaining a thorough understanding of what your target market wants and needs within identifiable micro-moments, you are able to create content that speaks directly to them.
With every piece of content, the focus should be on providing a customer-centric user experience that appears authentic, appropriate, and personal.
Your company is unique, and your target market has its own assortment of micro-moments. Determining what those moments are will aid you in increasing your prospects and having a more successful branding strategy.
However, this all comes down to identifying and understanding your customers and examining customer search intent. Once you have done this, you can curate your content to demonstrate how effectively your products/services address those specific problems.
Reviews are essential, but you should also look for ways to educate buyers about your product/services. Position your brand as the expert and concentrate on illustrating characteristics that present your offerings as the best option available.
Final thoughts
In order to win a sizeable segment of the market, it is crucial that your company creates a strategy to provide for these micro-moments. These are what are reshaping the marketing funnel and ultimately will determine how businesses position their branding to raise brand awareness and sell more products or services effectively.
Companies that succeed will be those that discover how to attract their target market’s attention and how to drive customer experiences in an intentional real-time manner. Brands that are incapable of doing this will miss out on essential opportunities to connect.
Does your brand have a strategy in place for utilizing micro-moments? Do you think you need to take it to the next level?
If so, reach out to the best branding consultancy in Dubai to ensure that you are employing a proven, strategy-led methodology for building and growing your brand. If you want to maximize your brand value, you need to schedule a call with a brand consultant today.
AUTHOR BIO
Hasan Fadlallah is a Serial Entrepreneur – Founder & CEO of Brand Lounge, the region’s leading and award-winning branding consultancy, whose role is to help organizations align their business behind an idea that will deliver success time and again. Equipped with over 20 years of professional consulting experience, today he advises businesses throughout the Gulf and Africa on brand development and in 2014 was recognized by the World Brand Congress who awarded him the prestigious Brand Leadership award in Brand Excellence.